


Rescue

by frogs_of_war



Series: Complex [2]
Category: Wizarding World - Fandom
Genre: Demon, Family, M/M, Shifter, University, tough guy
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-04-01
Updated: 2017-04-04
Packaged: 2018-10-13 16:36:14
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 4,621
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10517634
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/frogs_of_war/pseuds/frogs_of_war
Summary: Tiziano must allow himself to be sold on the black market to rescue two kittens





	1. One

**Author's Note:**

> The letter š sounds like sh.
> 
> Also, this first half has nongraphic violence against people-animal. If you don't want to read that but still want to get the just: read the first section, scroll down to the end then back up slowly and read the last two sections.

Tiziano leaned against his boss’s desk. “What’ve you got for me today?”

Tatiana took a breath. “It might be dangerous.”

“Danger’s my middle name.” Tiziano buffed his nails on his jacket.

“I don’t mean ‘coaxing’ info out of a blackmailer or breaking into a guarded building. I need someone to embed themselves into a demon’s collections.”

Tiziano grinned. “And you thought of me? How sweet. Do demons still have collections?”

He’d had heard stories of demons making a zoo out of sentient beings, but they were all well before his time.

“Only really bad ones.” Tia was so straight forward, which is why she was at the desk and he was in the field. She might be his twin, but they were nothing alike. Or almost nothing. They both wanted truth and justice to win.

“So we’re taking them down.” It had been too long since he’d destroyed a bad guy’s hope.

“We will of course rescue everyone we can, but our goal—even if we do nothing else—is to rescue two small feline familiars.”

“Kittens?” A house full of children might be the only thing that would make him retire. One couldn’t put their life at risk with little ones at home. Not that that was ever going to happen. Tiziano was just too picky.

“No. Just two very small cats.”

Regular cats were very small. “So I swoop in, rescue the little ones, and bring the demon to their knees?”

Now that was a real job.

~~~~~

Tiziano preened in the cage almost to small too turn around in. Good thing he had a bobbed tail. That was his Lynx heritage showing. His target was looking around the high scale black market establishment that an informant worked for.

They were taking this place down too, once Tiziano had those kittens safe.

Most of the other inhabitance of the cages were drugged, pressing themselves against their cage’s back corner, or both. The target had quite the reputation.

The informant’s boss talked quietly to the target about babies from the animals he breed, which ones he could make the most on, and which would just be a waste of food.

The target laughed and Tiziano had to take deep breaths to hold himself back. Those the target couldn’t sell, he ate.

This shop was going down as was all the people it sold to and all that sold to it. Tiziano swore on his life.

The target stopped in front of Tiziano’s cage. “It’s fairly well behaved.”

“Very well behaved,” the shopkeeper ran their hands down their white coat. “I haven’t had a single problem with it. It prefers the exercise cage, but goes back to the smaller one when told to. Male. Mid-twenties. Would make a great stud. Improve any stock. Impressive in both forms. Isn’t addicted and I’ve found no signs that it’s ever been kept drugged. Was used in the fighting rings off and on, so it has a few scars, but nothing that would inhibit sending him into the rings again. I have the full pedigree.”

Tiziano preened. He had to look his best. Fighting rings? Past tense, sure. Tiziano’s father had destroyed them from the inside out. Future though? Tia better hear about them.

The target looked the papers over and walked on. He spent several minutes tormenting a small rodent who had been chewing their own front paw bloody since the target had entered the room.

As soon as the target turned his back, the shopkeeper motioned for their clerk to remove the offending animal. Hopefully just to be drugged and not killed.

Tiziano was going to make all of them pay.

~~~~

Tiziano looked around the small room-like cage. It was painted a soft blue with fish scale tiles on the floor. Someone had bothered to decorate this viewing cage. The target looked in though the bars near the top. “The catnip.”

Dried minty leaf bits fell around Tiziano. Luckily he was immune. But he also knew how to act the part. The rubbed his face against the cold tiles. The target laughed. “Bring in the breeder.”

The spotted grey cat shoved in the second door was already doped up on catnip. He wasn’t just small. He was tiny. Tiziano had to weigh ten times as much. His front paw was probably bigger than the kitten’s whole body.

A striped cat wined at the door. He sneezed. The catnip was effecting him, but he was fighting it off. _Aleš, please, come back here. I’ll protect you, but I need you to come here. Please, Aleš, please._

The poor spotted kitten was too far gone. He rubbed his body on the ground, moving closer to Tiziano.

_Please._ The striped cat begged. _Please don’t hurt him. Please leave him alone. Please._

Someone snatched the striped kitten up, shrieked, and dropped him. He ran back to the cage door rather that saving himself. He was snatched up again and when he fell the second time he was limp. Please let that be a knock out drug. Please. These had to be the two Tiziano was supposed to save.

The spotted kitten rubbed against his foot. He carefully lay on top of the kitten, trying to make it look like the catnip had got him. The spotted kitten wiggled and squirmed, begging to be taken.

Tiziano recited multiplication tables up to twenty-five, spell tables, dates from his history classes, his grandmother’s favorite recipes, all the people he could remember from his graduating class, his teachers and professors in chronological order.

Finally the kitten stopped wiggling and Tiziano shifted until the kitten was solidly under his chest. The target had grown bored with the lack of a show, so before he could send in his thugs to terrorize the poor kittens more, Tiziano mimed a thrusting motion.

The striped kitten cried, but the target called his minions off. Soon though, the target annoyed that Tiziano was too big for his to see the ‘show’, gave up in annoyance. Tiziano settled with the stripped kitten in front of his chest and laid his head over the poor little creature the same way he would have if the kitten had been his own. He wanted to reassure the striped kitten, to reassure both of the kittens, but he didn’t know if anyone was listening.

~~~~~

Tiziano woke when the cage door opened. He was hungry and thirsty and too hot. The stripped cat dragged himself in. _Aleš, Aleš are you awake?_

Tiziano moved back, but not far. The spotted cat didn’t look right. That catnip was either especially strong or the small cat was especially sensitive.

The striped cat nosed his friend—lover probably, although how could they be old enough for that?

Small teeth dug into Tiziano’s paw. _How could you? You hurt him!_

_I did nothing, although I understand if you don’t believe me._ Tiziano held still until the tiny teeth withdrew. _I don’t know why he won’t wake up._

_Because you hurt him!_

_He had to get out of here. Is there somewhere safe?_

_We live in a cage! There is no where safe!_

_Hush, kid._ Tiziano picked the spotted kitten up by the scruff and walked to a door.

Stripy ran ahead of him. Where do you think you’re going?

_We need to get him away from the catnip and get some food in him if we can. He should be awake by now._

Stripy whined. Then he straightened his back. _This way._

The kittens lived in a big luxurious bedroom with silk sheets and a giant bed, but their home was a box Tiziano could only fit his head in. He set Spotty on the towel and stepped back. _He needs to be cleaned._

_I know what he needs._ Stripy stepped between him and Spotty.

_I’m immune to catnip. No point making you sick too._

_Don’t touch him._ But Stripy didn’t move to stop Tiziano.

Tiziano cleaned Spotty like he would any kitten. _How old are you guys anyway?_

_Older than you._

Tiziano didn’t believe that. _What do you suppose the demon will do next?_

_The master will wait to see if a baby caught._

_It won’t have._

_Good._

_And the demon’s next step?_

Tiziano was glad his stomach was empty. He would have lost his lunch. These little kittens had lived through so much. We aren’t going to wait for that to happen.

He took a deep breath and sent a call to his twin. _I have them._

Her reply echoed over the distance. _Hold. The team is in place. We’re taking everyone down._

Tiziano hoped so. _I may need to get them out first._

_Wait as long as you can._

Tiziano set his jaw. If he moved too soon other people, like that poor rodent shifter, might never be freed. He’d have to find a way to keep the kittens safe until rescue came.

~~~~

The rescue was chaos. Tiziano hated fighting naked—the target only allowed clothes at his own whim and Tiziano hadn’t ‘earned’ any yet—but sometimes opposable thumbs were irreplaceable. When he took out the last bad guy, he wrapped himself in a sheet from the bed, and bent to see if the kittens were all right. Or as all right as they had been.

Spotty, Aleš, still wasn’t in the best shape, but understandable after what Stripy, Jonáš, said had happened to Aleš just before Tiziano arrived. The target hadn’t put on that little show to get Aleš with child.

Tiziano picked up the box and carried it out to where Tia was. She checked their names off the list. “We’re still missing seven.”

Tiziano didn’t have high hopes for them. “We need to get these to a hospital.”

Jonáš mewed his protest.

“No complaints. Aleš isn’t getting better.”

Aleš sobbed his pain. He’s been much too quiet for the last hour. Jonáš agreed to be seen by a doctor.

But Tia wouldn’t let Tiziano leave after the kittens safe. “I need you to get them all the way to their son.”

“They have a son?” How could they be old enough for that?

_Dal_. Aleš sobbed. _My little Dalimil._

He whispered the name over and over and strong little Jonáš wept.

~~~

The doctor said rest would do Aleš and Jonáš the most good. She’d done what she could.

Tiziano thanked her and tucked the kittens into a basket and carried them out into the hall. He was supposed to meet a demon who would then take Tiziano and the kittens to the home of the couple who’d fought so hard for their freedom.

Something smelled good. Really good. Tiziano let his nose lead him to a demon with glasses and patches on the elbows of his jacket. His contact? “Professor?”

The demon’s eyes widened like he’d been exposed to catnip. He struggled to hid his reaction behind his suit jacket, but he couldn’t hid the smell.

He held out his hand. “Professor Onesimus. I’m guessing the basket has the parents of my favorite student’s husband.”

Tiziano shrugged. “Tiziano. I’ve got two kittens. The doctor tells me they’re just small, but they’re kittens.”

No adult cat was as small as these two. And even in human shape they didn’t look old enough to have a child who had a husband.

Onesimus took his arm. “This way, Tiziano.” He almost purred Tiziano’s name. “I sent Salathiel and Cunobelinus a note saying we’re coming.”

“Are you sure having these kittens stay with demons would be a good idea?” They’d lived through a lot at the hands of a demon.

“They can rest up and get well then decide where they want to live. We have counseling appointments set up, but they are no where near the worst off and with all the people coming out of captivity at once our knowledgeable professionals are taxed. I want them going to someone who won’t make things worse.”

Tiziano grudgingly agreed. He cared about these two little guys. “Lead on.”

Onesimus weaved his fingers into Tiziano, which wasn’t necessary for the jump across the demon realms, but felt good anyway. The touch of a man, even a demon one, was a good cure for the last week. Hot sex would be better, but Tiziano had a job to do.

The step was quick. Onesimus knocked on an ornamented door. The door was opened by a old school demon, except this one had a ponytail hanging over their shoulder, a ratty sweater on, and used the pronoun ‘they’, none of which was old school at all.

Cunobelinus invited them in and apologized for Salathiel being gone. They were on their way to get the kittens’ son. The kittens still weren’t old enough for a grown child. Tiziano would never believe it.

He tucked the kitten’s basket behind the edge of the couch and joined Onesimus at the table. They were offered tea, coffee, cookies, pudding, and cake. Tiziano hadn’t indulged in too long and Cunobelinus cooked wonderfully. But despite all the goodies, the warm masculine scent of Onesimus was the best in the room. Tiziano was distracted from Cunobelinus’s story by Onesimus being distracted.

Onesimus was into Tiziano, that much was plain. He’d be great for easing Tiziano into civilian life after weeks on the edge, but if he tasted half as good as he smelled, Tiziano would have a hard time forgetting him and he wasn’t looking for anything long term right now. Which Onesimus wasn’t about to offer anyway.

Cunobelinus stood up so fast their chair tipped over. “Salathiel.”

He hurried to the door.

An angel rushed in holding the arm of a porcupine shifter, and in the arms of that young man was a small youth with a big belly.

“Blanket!” The angel screamed.

The bedroom. Jonáš raced up the hall and turned quickly. In here.

Tiziano yanked the bedspread off the bed and ran into the living room. Cunobelinus took the blanket from his hands and spread it in front of the couch. The angel the coxed the young man to put the pregnant boy down.

Aleš and Jonáš spoke soothingly to little Dal. The kid was in labor. It was time for Tiziano to go. He excused himself as more people appeared. The kittens were safe with their very own kitten, having kittens of his own. Made a man feel really old.


	2. Two

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Tiziano sees who he most wants to at the worst possible time.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This half only has violence against people to do violence against people who are animals.

Tiziano gave his statement which was fact plus hearsay, supposition, and conjecture. Everyone looked as grim as he felt by the time he was done. He took those feeling out on a punching bag because one didn’t take them out on the defendant, no matter how guilty one knew they were.

If only he’d been the one who got a good kick in when the creep was out for the count. The official statement said a former captive applied the kick. Sure.

But Tiziano was a former captive, planted or not, maybe he could get someone to look the other way…

Tiziano walked out of the interrogation room with his knuckles bleeding. Of course his boss was there. Tia just shook her head. Tiziano shrugged. “I punched the wall.”

“Is there going to be a wall in there with your blood on it?”

“Yes.”

She rolled her eyes. “What’s justice without truth?”

“What’s justice without mercy?”

She crossed her arms against the clipboard she was holding. “Take a few days off.”

Tiziano leaned against the wall as she walked away. “Should have killed him while I had the chance.”

“Hi.”

Onesimus. The other person he didn’t want to see while covered in blood. “Hi.”

“I,” Onesimus cleared his throat. “I heard you were here. I’d like to talk to you.”

Chuck reasonableness. Tiziano no longer cared. “If you’d rather have hot sweaty sex all afternoon, I’m up for that too. Just let me shower.”

Onesimus was waiting outside the locker room when Tiziano emerged. Tiziano grinned. “Talking? Sex? Both?”

“Food?” Onesimus grinned. “Punching a wall must really build up your appetite.”

Instead of a cafe or restaurant, Onesimus took him to an apartment overlooking a university campus. Blue skies. When was the last time he’d seen an open sky? Skies in the demon realm tended to be finite.

“Your place?”

Onesimus nodded. “I can have lunch ready in fifteen minutes, whenever you're hungry.”

Tiziano was hungry all right. “Why don’t we eat after.”

Onesimus nodded again. “I have an open office available to my students from three to five today.”

Tiziano looked at the clock. “Then we’ll keep the talk short for now. Does it bug you that I was covered in demon blood?”

Onesimus took a deep breath. “I’ve spent the morning helping the captives get their stories down. If he’s still breathing, you might not have hit him hard enough.”

Tiziano laughed and moved Onesimus against the wall. “Any nickname you want me to shout? I’m partial to Tease for myself but open to anything.”

Then he leaned forward and kissed his demon. His demon, at least for the moment.

~~~~  
__  
Ziano.  
_  
Ziano_

Tiziano rolled over and pulled the pillow over his head. The sheets smelled of Zimus—the z being easier to shout when Tiziano was at the edge and it made such a cute nickname for such a beautiful adult man. Tiziano had never dated anyone who was a pillar in their community, anyone who told him to go back to sleep while they left for work. It was nice.  
_  
Tiziano, answer me._

Tia. “You gave me a few days off.”  
_  
You’ve had a week. Get back here._

A week? Those days had gone by quickly. And the nights quicker.  
_  
I have a job for you_.

Tiziano got up with a sigh. He’d never been this reluctant to go to work before.  
_  
A job. Get here now and I might forgive you for your slip up._

Tiziano got out of bed and looked around for his clothes. In the living room. That was right. “You read my statement? That was no slip up.”  
_  
So you going to do it again?_

“No, turns out it gave him the opportunity to gloat. Make sure he doesn’t get a chance to gloat at trial.”  
_  
I’ll make sure. Get here._

“Give me a bit to say goodbye, will you.”  
_  
When have you ever needed to say goodbye?_

“He introduced me to his teaching assistants.” He’d had to after they were caught making out in his office. “Can’t just ghost.”  
_  
Just get here._

Tiziano grabbed some breakfast, then made his way across campus to Zimus’s class. He had it bad, he even knew where the guy was working. Zimus grinned at him as he walked in. He sat down in a back seat. If his professors had been this interesting he might have stayed in college. Of course if his professors had been this handsome, he’d have been sleeping with them too.

Once class was over, Tiziano waited until the students had asked their questions before he took his turn. “Duty calls.”

Zimus licked his perfect lips. “How long?”

Tiziano shrugged.

“You know you’re always welcome in my bed.”

Tiziano grinned. “I’ll keep you to that.”

Then he kissed him until the next batch of students took their seats.

~~~~

Surveillance had never been fun, but it was even less so knowing that Zimus’s bed was calling to him.

Beating up bag guys had lost it’s charm.

Breaking into building was just a drag.

He sighed and leaned on his boss’s desk. “When was my last vacation?”

“Two months ago.”

“Ha!” Tiziano stood up. “That was a suspension. When was my last vacation?”

Tia rolled her eyes. “You never take vacation.”

“So I’ve got some saved up.”

“A couple months worth. Your next assignment starts tomorrow.”

Tiziano pushed off the desk. “My next assignment starts when I feel like coming back.”

The trip to Zimus’s university was so long Tia had stopped screaming at him by the time he arrived.

Tuesday afternoon meant open office time, right?

Zimus’s office was open and he had a line of students waiting to talk to him. A TA saw him and lit up. “You’re back.”

“Yeah.” Tiziano pointed to the office door. “Don’t let him go until I get back. Once I see him, those students will be out of luck.”

The next hour was longer than Tiziano’s whole journey. The nice TA sent him a note when the last student went in to talk to Zimus. Tiziano hurried back to the building and took a seat. 

Zimus walked the student to the door and told her to edit her essay and he’d accept it. Tiziano slid up beside the door and once the student had gone by he stepped into the doorway and pressed his hand against Zimus’s chest. “Sorry, professor. I just have this one question before you go. If I missed a couple of classes, does that mean I fail the semester?”

Zimus licked his lips. “Depends on why you missed them.”

“I was protecting the powerless against the awful, but my soul had dried up like a raisin. I’ll empty without you.”

Zimus put a hand to Tiziano’s arm and pulled him close. When he leaned back from the kiss he was in Zimus’s apartment. Getting to Zimus’s bedroom took longer, but was even more fun.

~~~~~

Tiziano stretched across the bed to check the clock. Zimus relaxed into a pillow. “When do you have to go?”

“Wish I was a more powerful wizard.” Tiziano ran his hand up Zimus’s arm. “That way I could commute every day. Took me close to four hours to get here today.”

“I like you the way you are.”

“Just wish you could like me more often?” Tiziano had heard the word Mate floating around outside Zimus’s office, but Zimus had yet to say it,

Zimus sighed. “We all have responsibilities. But couldn’t you come for weekends? I’d be willing to get you?”

“No weekends in the business.”

“But why does it have to be you all the time?”

“Tia and I have a link, like the best communication tech but without the risk of it getting lost or stolen or being detected. We’ve never been far enough apart for it not to work and we’ve tried it across three realms and two worlds. I say she’d be able to connect with anyone she knew well enough. She says it’s because we’re twins. That’s her excuse not to find a nice spouse and settle down.”

“Ever thought of settling down?”

Tiziano scooted across the bed until he was nose to nose with Zimus. “Not until I met you.”

Zimus melted into his arms and he enjoyed the next few minutes thoroughly, but something was still missing. Tiziano waited until they were up, dressed, and eating. “Am I your Mate?”

Zimus set his fork down and stared at his plate.

“Because I heard it mentioned several times today about me and you.”

“How would it change things?”

Tiziano sighed and leaned back in his chair. “If I’m not, then for my own sanity I should leave and never come back.”

Zimus looked away.

“I probably wouldn’t— I have a pretty high pain tolerance—even knowing the heart break at the end.”

“Heart break?” He had Zimus’s attention again.

“Yeah, when you take up with whoever’s supposed to be in your bed.”

“Supposed to be?”

“Your real Mate.”

“You are my Mate. Can’t you feel it?” Zimus set his lips together. 

That was not an expression Tiziano wanted to see there, especially aimed at him. “I’m just a tough guy mutt, remember. A little bit of wizard, maybe a sprinkling of demon but it could be djinn depending on the story, handful of shifter from a scattering of breeds, and maybe a pinch of familiar unless my great-grandmother’s husband wasn’t actually Grandpa’s dad. I’ve no training on what I’m supposed to be feeling. Seen it happen. But watching someone take a punch is different than taking it yourself.”

Zimus looked away again. Tiziano could read him so well. “I feel happy just to think of you, even outside a sexual context.”

The corners of Zimus’s lips rose.

“And the sex is terrific. On a scale of one to ten, it would break the scale. Fifteen? Eighteen? Seventy-five? Not enough data yet to form a solid conclusion.” He took Zimus’s hand. “Do you think of me?”

“All the time.” He gave Tiziano’s hand a squeeze. “I can feel you sometimes. Where you surprised by thugs…” He got up, got a book from the coffee table and opened it. “Last Thursday around eight pm?”

Tiziano thought back. “Thursday. Early Friday morning. Could have been eight here with the time differences. You felt that?”

Zimus closed the book. “And the satisfaction you felt beating them up.”

Tiziano had enjoyed that. “Anything else?”

Zimus opened the book with a smirk, then frowned and closed it. “When do you have to go back?”

Tiziano gathered him into his arms. “Maybe never.”

Zimus stiffened. “I don’t want you to quit your job.”

And lose all the muscles it gave Tiziano too probably.

“We have more than one office. I could work over here and have more to do with shifters, familiars, and wizards, and less with demons.”

“But your sister?”

“Hey, Zimus, she’s family, but if I had family here too?”

“Tiziano.”

He melted, so cute. They fit together so well. Tiziano put his finger over Zimus’s lips. “Before we head to the bedroom again, ever thought of kids of your own, not just your students?”

Lights shone in Zimus’s eyes. Yep, Tiziano could read him. “I’m a shifter, not a familiar, so you’d have to be the carrying parent. You can do that right?”

Zimus nodded. “And as much as I hate to wait, I don’t want to have an infant in the middle of a term. And not until you are firmly situated close enough that you can come home at night.”

“Home.” The word just felt right. And being with Zimus was right.

~~~~

Tiziano leaned on his boss’s desk. “What have you got for me today?”

“It’ll be dangerous.”

Tiziano laughed. “As long as it doesn’t mess up my face.”

Tia shook her head. “When did you get to be so vain?”

Tiziano laughed again. “Zimus doesn’t mind to occasional black eye, even though I seem to always have one, and split knuckles, when he dresses me up to show me off at the periodic faculty parties.” Tiziano was the tough guy husband everyone heard so much about. “But _you_ explain to a four year old why Daddy got hurt.”

“You fight bad guys.”

“That’s not enough for Quil. She says I’m not allowed to get hurt anymore. If I get hurt again, I need to quit.”

Tia rubbed her face. “But you’re not listening to a four year old.”

“And last time I came home with a split lip, Temi burst time tears and couldn’t be consoled.”

“Tiziano, these things are important.”

“My kids are important too.” He pulled her out of her chair and sat down. “Why don’t I sit behind the desk for while. You can go into the field.”

She put her hands on her hips. “That’s not how it works.”

“And while you're out there, you can flirt with that koala shifter you’ve been eying.”

She groaned. “Koalas and Lynx aren’t compatible.”

“An astrology chart tell you that? Now get. I have some important correspondence to take care of.” He waited until she was gone and pulled out the picture Quil had drawn for him. The cutest family drawing ever. The squiggles by the left edge where where Temi helped. 

Maybe Tiziano should frame it. His family of four who would soon be a family of five. Bliss.


End file.
